Ride The Rails At Top Speed

March 17, 1985|By Jean Allen, Travel Editor

PARIS — ``Let`s go to Lyon for lunch,`` suggested a French railroad-official friend who wanted to show off his trains. So we did. We hopped aboard the world`s fastest train at Gare de Lyon in Paris and made the 254-mile trip in 2 hours, 2 minutes. We spent 5 3/4 hours in the interesting old French city, long enough to have lunch and do some serious sightseeing. Then we boarded another fast train at Lyon`s modern Part Dieu station and arrived back in Paris for dinner.

If this train ran in Florida, a Fort Lauderdale day-tripper would go to Orlando (207 miles) in 1 hour, 22 minutes; someone boarding in West Palm Beach would get to Orlando (172 miles) in just over an hour. If Florida`s hypothetical fast trains followed the French lead, there would be 18 trains a day each way on the run.

Our train was the TGV (train a grand vitesse), a sleek and comfortable orange and white streamliner that speeds along weld tracks built especially for it. It ran that day at 169 mph. That`s not so fast: The train has been clocked at 237 1/2 mph. Japan`s bullet trains, the world`s second fastest trains in regular service, run up to 130 mph.

The TGVs that link Paris with 32 cities throughout southeastern France plus Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland, eventually will link the whole nation on a growing network of special tracks. They are the stars of the European railways, but they are not the only joys of train travel in Europe.

Trains are a great way to see Western Europe, whose railroad systems -- all heavily subsidized by their respective governments -- continue to get faster and better.

A train traveler`s best bet is to buy a Eurailpass that provides unlimited travel on the railways of 16 nations for 15 days to three months; or buy a transportation pass for one country for a few days to a month.

Eurailpass in hand, travelers can explore 100,000 miles of rail and ride trains that are in top shape, punctual and stop in city centers instead of the tacky side of town. The railroad stations provide travelers with everything from barber shops to banks.

It doesn`t take long to recover the cost of the pass, which on a 15-day basis is $17.33 per day. The Paris to Lyon round-trip rate on the TGV without a Eurailpass is $57 for second-class travel during peak hours, $68 for first- class travel. Reservations are required. With the pass, the cost is $2.

WEEKEND IN IRELAND

The Eurailpass includes dozens of intriguing bonuses, such as cruises, ferryboat rides and bus tours.

For example, spend a weekend in Ireland. Ireland is one of the 16 nations included in Eurailpass, but England is not. So the trick is to bypass England and still ride the rails in Ireland. The answer is a ship.

I crossed from Rosslare, Ireland, to Cherbourg, France (17 hours), on a ferry of Irish Continental Line, joining several hundred Irish weekenders, mostly teen-age groups or families, who partied their way across the channel, shopped for bargains at the ship`s duty-free shop, played the slot machines, frequented the lounge, dining room and snack bar, saw the movie and slept in padded Pullman chairs or paid extra to sleep in a cabin.

Berths go from $10 per person in a six-bunk cabin to $48 per person in a two-bunker; Eurailpass holders get the cruise free and pay half-price for cabins.

Irish Continental ships also make the run between Rosslare and LeHavre (21 hours.) A Eurailpass holder can cross from France and hop a train to Dublin (3 hours), which is the hub of the improving Irish train system. The stars of Ireland`s improving railway system are the new trains in service between Dublin and Cork. Also included in the pass benefits are free rides on the good Irish CIE Expressway buses that coordinate schedules with the trains.

Approximately 20,000 travelers used their Eurailpasses in Ireland last year. The cost of the crossing without the Eurailpass is about $64, although most of the Irish weekenders were on much lower special excursion fares.

Other free Eurailpass options include:

(BU) Cruise the Baltic from Sweden to Finland: Board a Silja Line steamer in Stockholm and cruise to Turku or Helsinki. Cabins cost extra.

(BU) Take the ferry across the Adriatic Sea from Brindisi, Italy, to Patras, Greece.

(BU) Cruise the Rhine on a KD German Rhine Line day ship between Dusseldorf and Frankfurt, or on the Mosel River beween Trier and Koblenz.

(BU) Take a Europabus tour along Germany`s Castle Road or Romantic Road.

(BU) Ride the cog railway to the summit of the Zugspitze in Garmisch- Partenkirchen, West Germany.

(BU) Ride the train into the city from the airport in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Paris and Zurich.

In addition to those and other freebies, Eurailpass holders get discounts on cruises and ferry crossings between Greece and Egypt, Denmark and England, Denmark and Norway, and mainland Spain to Majorca and Morocco.